SwamCam evaluate: Monitor your swimming pool from wherever

Greatest Costs Right this moment: SwamCam Digital camera Pool Alarm System with WiFi Repeater

With a reputation like SwamCam, you would possibly have already got an inkling of what this product is designed to do. When you guessed it’s designed to regulate your swimming pool, congrats! That stated, my expectation is that a few of SwamCam’s performance will shock you—as will its price ticket.

At its easiest, SwamCam is a digicam designed with pool security—significantly youngsters who won’t be water-safe—squarely in thoughts. The rectangular machine is a primary 1080p (1920 x 1080 pixels) digicam with a fisheye digicam with a 160-degree discipline of view and normal LED night time imaginative and prescient.

You mount the digicam on a wall, fence, or someplace else (numerous {hardware} is included, together with a 20-foot energy twine—a 50-foot twine is offered at further price) and intention it straight at your swimming pool, the place it retains a watchful eye on goings-on.

The digicam carries a weatherization score of IP65, which our IP code information tells us means it’s impervious to mud ingress and that it may well stand up to water jets coming from any path (in need of a strain washer). Additionally within the combine are two-way audio, an built-in alarm system, and a button that permits you to rapidly dial 911 must you spot one thing amiss.

A safety digicam that doesn’t file on movement detection

Christopher Null/Foundry

What the SwamCam does not do is file video routinely, and formally the corporate says it isn’t designed to be “a historic information safety system.” The movement detection system within the machine watches for human motion at a variety of as much as 35 toes away, and (if armed) sounds an alarm if it detects any. That alarm retains sounding till the movement stops.

The SwamCam cell app sends you a push notification, at which level you possibly can try a reside video feed, however, once more, video will not be recorded except you manually provoke it (which in flip requires a subscription plan; I’ll get to that in a bit). A reside video feed is offered for viewing any time, whether or not the alarm is sounding or not.

Efficiency

Christopher Null/Foundry

Over a number of weeks of testing, I discovered the machine to be responsive, performing nicely at its major process: detecting people in and across the pool. I positioned it alongside a regular Vivint safety digicam and didn’t see any actual distinction within the alert charges—or false positives, with occasional alerts popping up when a pool robotic lumbered into view. Stay video was fast to load in my testing, and the alarm sounded instantly—and sustainedly—after I had the system armed.

The SwamCam app is a curiosity that deserves its personal evaluation. The principle web page could be very easy, providing solely a Stay View button and a separate button for arm/disarm actions. It actually couldn’t be less complicated, which is fully the purpose of the machine. Tapping the gear icon, nevertheless, takes you to an oddball settings web page, which is organized as a grid of haphazardly organized capabilities.

Every thing else you are able to do with the digicam is positioned right here, from setting movement sensitivity and your movement detection zone, an arming timer and scheduling system, a customized emergency name quantity (when you don’t need 911), and even the video playback system. It’s bizarre to dig round in a settings menu to search out recorded movies, however I suppose it’s one thing you’ll get used to.

SwamCam isn’t only a single machine however somewhat a part of an ecosystem that’s offered in quite a few bundles and configurations, together with bundles that comprise a number of cameras, so you may get a have a look at your pool from totally different angles, together with numerous equipment you possibly can add to the combination. (The app helps a most of three cameras and a complete of 20 equipment.) The equipment embody an indoor alarm (with or with out an built-in Wi-Fi repeater) and a numeric keypad that can be utilized to arm and disarm the SwamCam alarm. The keypad can be utilized indoors or out, because it’s rated IP65 for cover from mud and liquid ingress.

Christopher Null/Foundry

The equipment connect with the SwamCam by way of Zigbee. I examined the model with the included Wi-Fi repeater, and whereas it guarantees to work at a variety of as much as 100 toes (from the SwamCam digicam), I used to be unable to get it to connect with the digicam at a variety of 40 toes, ostensibly on account of interference between the 2 gadgets. The digicam solely works on 2.4GHz Wi-Fi networks.

As soon as I moved the indoor alarm/repeater to only a few toes away from the digicam (however nonetheless inside the home), I used to be in a position to get a powerful, dependable sign. The inside alarm is extraordinarily loud and ear-piercing (; a voiced various can also be accessible. When it went off, I knew, even when I used to be on the opposite aspect of the home.

The numeric keypad is simplistic in each design and performance. The chunky machine, powered by two AAA batteries, can arm and disarm the system after coming into a PIN you create within the app. Tapping any digit on the keypad causes it to mild up and point out with a small LED whether or not the system is armed or disarmed. More often than not, nevertheless, the lights are all off, so you possibly can’t readily inform with out tapping it whether or not the system is armed or not.

The price conundrum

As a primary alarm system that may warn you if somebody falls into the pool, SwamCam does what it guarantees, and I really feel fairly comfy understanding that if a toddler wanders into my yard whereas the SwamCam is armed, the siren on the digicam (80dBA at 10 toes) and/or the Wi-Fi extender (91dBA at 10 toes) will hearth off and let me know.

Christopher Null/Foundry

However, I’m equally comfy that my present digicam system—or any of various different extra standard safety cameras—would do the identical job. However they’d additionally file video of the incident. That stated, my different safety cameras will not be ASTM-certified pool alarms.

The massive catch is that each one these things could be very, very costly. The SwamCam bundle I obtained, together with one digicam, the inside alarm (with Wi-Fi repeater), and the keypad prices a jaw-dropping $499. Standalone merchandise are additionally dear. A substitute digicam is $299. The inside alarm is $149, or $129 with out the repeater. The keypad is $99.

These varieties of costs boggle the thoughts given their restricted characteristic set, and I don’t know of any DIY safety system that will come wherever near costing that form of money. (For tough comparability, SimpliSafe’s “The Beacon” package with base station, keypad, two out of doors cameras, and 4 sensors is at present $367.)

And it bears repeating that these different techniques may be set to file video on movement detection. The SwamCam is not going to.

You may additionally be shocked to be taught you’ll have to subscribe to SwamCam’s premium service if you would like lots of the system’s options; specifically, the flexibility to file and share movies, to set customized detection zones, create a couple of keypad code, and extra. With a paid subscription, video is saved for 30 days on SwamCam’s cloud service.

Christopher Null/Foundry

Clips is usually a most of 10 minutes you probably have one digicam, or 5 minutes you probably have two.) The service prices $4/month or $40/12 months. SwamCam suggests prospects would possibly need to subscribe just for the months of the 12 months when their pool is in lively use. A 30-day trial subscription is included with buy.

This evaluate is a part of TechHive’s iin-depth protection of the very best residence safety cameras

I did encounter one downside with recorded video: Whereas the guide recordings I made in the beginning of my testing have been instantly playable, newer recordings by no means turned accessible for playback, displaying a “Video didn’t load, please attempt once more later” error—even after greater than a day had handed since they have been ostensibly created.

Must you purchase a SwamCam?

Hear: Pool security is not any joke, with some 4,000 individuals drowning every year in accordance with the CDC, most of these in swimming swimming pools. It’s additionally the main reason behind unintentional demise for kids ages 1 to 4. As a pool proprietor, I take security severely, together with fencing and round the clock digicam surveillance, and I like to recommend the identical to different pool house owners.

However whereas SwamCam’s coronary heart is in the precise place—and there’s one thing to be stated for its being an ASTM-certified pool alarm—its pricing merely will not be. I simply can’t get my head round any calculus that will persuade me {that a} near-$500 buy (plus subscription charges) is warranted for the very primary performance the SwamCam gives—regardless of how good a job it does.